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Wednesday, May 8, 2013

How to Decide which Social Media Outlet is Right for your Business

With all of the social media your business could be on it, it can be difficult to determine what outlets you should be using to send your messages. From YouTube to Pinterest to Facebook to Twitter and everything in between, it can all be overwhelming, and in some cases, not worth the time and resources. In order to find a strong ROI through social media use, you need to find the right place for your business to spread its messages. Here's a guide on how to decide which social media outlet is right for your business.1. Where is your audience? Determine on what platforms your audience is consuming information. If your audience is predominantly female, perhaps communicating with your audience through Pinterest is your best option. Check out the demographics of each social media site you're thinking of using to see where your business's messages will be found and heard by your audience. Ask your existing audience what platforms they use to find answers, services or products they need. Be where your existing and target audiences are communicating and consuming.

2. Are you equipped to distribute your messages on all, or some of those outlets? Having said all of the above, it's important for you to know what you can handle. If you find out your audience is on Twitter, YouTube and Facebook, and you want to put together a strategy for each, it might be difficult depending on the size of your business. If you have the time and resources available to communicate on a bunch of social media platforms, by all means, do it! However, if you're a one person shop owner, it might be best to determine which social media outlet is worth you investing your time and resources into the most. Find out which will yield the most engagement with your audience. This might be something you'll need to do on a trial and error basis to determine where you should put in your effort.

3. What is working for you? After you've either dabbled in various social media platform use, or used certain platforms for a substantial amount of time, look at the data you've gathered. Determine which social media outlets have yielded new leads, new sales, new conversations, new visitors and new customers. Which social media outlet(s) is providing the best results? Where should you focus your time, energy and resources? Once you've figured out where you should be talking in the wide world of social media, you'll begin to see the ROI you've longed for with social media.